GMR to invest Rs60,000 cr in power, coal

New Delhi: Infrastructure major GMR Group has planned to invest more than Rs60,000 crore over the next five-six years to enhance its power generation capacity in the country and acquire coal assets abroad.

“We have targeted generation of nearly 12,000MW capacity in the next 5-6 years. Of these, at least 7,000MW will be operationalised by 2010,” informed Raaj Kumar, CEO, GMR Energy.

The GMR Group presently has power plants in Andhra Pradesh (388.5MW), Karnataka (220MW) and Tamil Nadu (200MW). It is now coming up with two thermal power plants of 1,050MW each in Orissa and Chhattisgarh.

The group is working on hydroelectric power projects in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh with a total capacity of 640MW, apart from pitching in for a few hydel projects in neighbouring Nepal.

The CEO of the company informed that the financing of the new projects would be done in a debt-equity ratio of 75:25. “A sum of around Rs13,000 crore would be raised internally. As the projects shape up, we will arrange for the finance. We are in general talks with national as well as international banks,” he said.

Of the total investment, an estimated amount of Rs12,000 crore would be spent on acquiring coal properties in Indonesia and South Africa to fuel the capacity addition plans.

The company is also looking at two-three coal blocks in Indonesia and South Africa, and hopes to acquire a majority stake in one of these properties.